One of you mentioned steaming the food you plan on pureeing. Most of the cookbooks I have use that method too, but I know a lot of the sprouts brand food is roasted to keep more nutrients? Anyone tried roasting?

I have the baby bullet. I like it because of the baby food jars it comes with. The silicone freezer tray is nice because the food cubes fit right in the baby food jars...and the jars are happy....it makes me smile to see them in the fridge smiling back at me. Regarding pp's question, I roast some of my food, butternut squash, peaches, and carrots do well this way.

You know, I'm probably cheap but I bought a KidCo baby food mill for $10 and made all of DS1, DD2, and now DS2's food that way ... way cheaper and JUST as easy. Plus it's easier to clean and you can take it on the go! When we ate out (so rarely, but still), I could throw anything in it and the kiddos could eat our stuff. Just a thought!

__________________Abby, SAHM mom to Maddy (10), Benny (7), Annie (3.5),and Joshy (1). Wife to my traveling hub for 11 years! Almost FT student (2nd time around). My life is not perfect, but I keep telling myself if I say it enough I will believe it!

I use an immersion blender to make my little guy's food. It is great for small amounts and I can just blend up some of whatever we are having for dinner. It can be used right in the pot I cooked in, or in the dish I am going to serve from.

I used one of those tiny food processors/choppers. It did the job. If I wanted to do a lot, then I used the blender instead. Both worked just fine. I also used Baby Cubes for freezing and totally loved those. I actually still use the 2 oz ones a lot for my 3 year old. They are a great size for little snacks, and she really likes if I fill up a couple with leftover veggies from dinner, blackbeans, or whatever and leave them in the fridge so she can help herself.

Both my kiddos have preferred thicker purees - more paste-like. I just give them something that we are eating usually. The "firsts" are recommended as avocado, apple, banana, sweet potato, acorn/butternut squash, carrots. You can find a lot of info on the internet about feeding, but there are some good books too - some that offer recipes for homemade baby food and combos that taste good. Peas, broccoli, spinach, cabbage, pears, prunes. And - or course, cereal (though not everyone offers cereal or thinks it's necessary. For me, it was the thickening agent I needed sometimes! And while Dr.'s usually recommend rice cereal to start with - neither of mine liked it. And if you taste it you will see why! So, i offered apples and bananas first and then started adding oatmeal cereal to that.)

Around 8 months is when you can introduce beans, meats. I began yogurt around then, which was run to mix with fruits and sweet potatoes - especially the Greek yogurt.

Ones to wait until closer to a year are the more acidic ones and the ones that are harder to digest - like corn.

Ones to wait until after a year or even later are things that have more allergic reactions, like berries, peanuts.

That's just the basics for offering purees to baby. Some people prefer to use the "Baby Lead Weaning/Feeding" method where you basically skip purees and offer them mushy food and allow them to feed themselves. Kellymom.com is a good resource for that.

After I started experimenting with baby food I actually was able to cut a lot of other seasoning out of our own food by just adding a puree as a sauce or mixing in mashed banana with oatmeal for sweetener instead of sugar!

__________________Nicole, SAHM to Juliette (5), Nathan (2), and a new seedling coming August 2013.

I just used my regular food processer, or for smaller amounts the blender attachment to the stick blender.

I froze the food in glass baby food jars or tupper containers. Each were one serving. Very easy for daycare. I could send frozen and they would be thawed by lunch time.

I started making the baby food about a month before actually using it. I had it all lined up by type in the freezer. When the veggies and fruits were inseason and I could get them at the farmers market or from my garden. One of the easiest was when we cooked chicken or roast in the crock pot I always put extra carrots, sweet potatoes, ect and then purred some with the stock some with out.

I also used frozen veggies. A bag of frozen peas made a ton of food for way less cost.

I use an immersion blender and I love Dr. Denmark's mush. I can make a month's worth in less than an hour (which says a lot as my 14 month old eats as much as I do! ). Ive altered the recipe a bit just to give my little guy a greater spectrum of fruits/veggies and he LOVES the stuff :-). I freeze it in those xs ziploc bowls (I probably have 60+ of them-lol) and stack them in my deep freezer.